Testing, Testing And Testing

Audio

Lame gets a big boost from either Core 2 processor, but the X6800-equipped high-end build barely outshines the mid-budget system.

OGG audio conversion tightens the race, but still finds both Core 2 processors with a significant lead over the Athlon X2-based budget configuration.

Video

Knowing the price differences between these systems in advance, the midrange system particularly shines in DivX encoding, though the high-end system edges it out.

Same story, different application. There is a lot of similarity between all of the encoding results. Regardless of whether it's audio or video, the Core2 Duo's architecture is much stronger than the Athlon 64's in this arena.